Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister inform the House of recent additions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that will improve the health of older Australians, in particular those with osteoporosis?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canning for his question. I know that he takes a very personal interest in this. It is very important for thousands of people in his electorate, as it is for millions of people—some two million people—around Australia who suffer from osteoporosis. The PBS is one of the three pillars of Medicare. Thanks to the PBS, Australians gain affordable access to life-saving and life-enhancing drugs. Thanks to the Howard government, more Australians have more access to more medicines than ever before.

Since August there have been new and expanded PBS listings. Herceptin, for early stage breast cancer; Lantus, for insulin-dependent diabetics; and statins, for people with cardiac risk factors, have added some $1 billion to our PBS investment over the forward estimates period. As well, there is now good news for people over 70 with osteoporosis. From April, up to 73,000 new patients each year will gain access to osteoporosis drugs such as Fosamax under the PBS, before they have fractures—because prevention is better than cure. Along with the associated bone mineral density testing, this latest measure will add some $225 million to our health investment over the forward estimates period.

While this government gets on with the job of making a good system even better, members opposite just cannot let go of something called Medicare Gold. The new shadow minister was asked on 3AW, just before Christmas:

But Medicare Gold has gone, hasn’t it? It’s dead, buried, never to be resurrected.

Listen to what she said on the record, on 3AW. The member for Gellibrand said:

Well, I think that there are some components of it—

that is, of Medicare Gold—

that are really important for us to consider in any rethink about the health system.

We know that Barry Jones called Medicare Gold a turkey. I ask the member for Gellibrand: which bits of that old stuffed bird does she want to serve now? I say to the Leader of the Opposition: inexperience is no excuse. If you do not have a health policy, you have no credibility as a candidate to lead this country.